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Originally Posted by SwordFish
Really? Tell us which rights you have lost, please be specific and describe in detail what you tried to do that was forbidden, how the government stopped you from doing it, and how long you were detained/questioned/tortured/whatever while you were trying to exercise these rights that were stripped from you. I'm waiting, and be specific with the details. Thanks.
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The issue with the Patriot Act is that you lose a lot of your constitutional rights without really knowing. It increases warrantless surveillances on everything from banking records, library records, phone records, internet records, and on and on. Regardless if you know or not, you may have had your privacy infringed upon.
But I think the biggest issue that those of us who truly appreciate our constitution have with the Patriot Act is the lack of checks and balances. Checks and balances have always kept branches of government from becoming too powerful while ensuring that they were playing by the rules. The Patriot Act skips over the judicial branch in many aspects and allows for abuse.
Although some will support and trust your government, the judicial branch approving the surveillance kept things in check. It assured us that some government employee wasn't tapping his ex-girlfriends phone to see who she was chatting with.
So the issue isn't what rights you've lost, as we simply don't know. I don't know if my IMs have been read, my phone records looked at, or banking transactions checked. If the government wants to do these kind of things, they should ammend the constitution and change the laws in place that require a checks and balances system that we've lived with for centuries.
Another note. The Patriot Act has been responsible for only one conviction since 9/11 on terrorism related charges. This is less than the 5 years prior to 9/11. If the Patriot Act is necessary, it sure doesn't seem to be drumming up enough evidence to convict all the terrorists we are told are amongst us.